In the Somali region, unmanaged competition for natural resources like fisheries can create flashpoints for conflict. Secure Fisheries is working to solve this problem by improving local-to-national governance linkages via co-management associations (CMAs). CMAs serve as a central node for community collaboration and conflict management, business development, and communication with government entities and international organizations. In 2020, Secure Fisheries hit a major milestone in their model by successfully developing CMAs in their two pilot communities of Bander Beyla and Zeila.
The CMAs were created via agreements between the local leaders of fishing cooperatives, the local government, and the state Ministries of Fisheries and Marine Resources, the first of their kind in the Somali region. The CMAs have already begun to have positive impacts within the pilot communities and in neighboring communities, as Secure Fisheries continues to make the case for co-management as a model for the entire Somali region. Together with the Secure Fisheries program’s groundbreaking project to develop the first nation-wide database of fisheries catch, effort, and market data, the future is bright for Somali fisheries as a source of stability on the Horn of Africa.
- First Co-management Associations in the Somali region created
- Fishers Field School established in Somaliland
- Nation-wide data collection successfully piloted
Program Incubation Progress
